Bayon School
Founded in 1997 near the Angkor temples, Bayon School gives vulnerable children and young people in the Siem Reap region access to education, health care and vocational training — and a real path out of poverty.
Nearly 30 years of schooling for children living around the temples
Bayon School traces back to the early 1990s, when a monk near the Bayon temple began sheltering children orphaned by decades of war. A small group of French and Cambodian friends started funding his makeshift classroom, and by 1997 that effort had grown into a proper primary school for around fifty children a year.
Today the school is run day-to-day by a Cambodian association, Bayon Education and Development, staffed by more than thirty local employees and a handful of volunteers. In 2026 it reaches roughly 550 children, students and family members across general education, health and hygiene, vocational training, and sustainable farming.
One school, four ways of reaching a community
General Education
Montessori preschool for ages 3–5, a primary school, and continued academic and financial support for around 400 students through secondary school and university.
Health & Hygiene
Regular health check-ups, hygiene kits and balanced daily meals to support children's growth and their ability to keep learning.
Vocational Training
Free bakery-and-pastry and agroecology schools give young people from disadvantaged backgrounds a practical trade and a fast route into stable work.
Family & Community
Household allowances, school supplies, uniforms and bicycles help families keep their children in class instead of at work.
A graduating class from the bakery-and-pastry vocational program, launched in 2014 and still training young women from the area today.
Small, practical support that keeps students enrolled
School dropout is common in this part of Cambodia once the everyday cost of attending — supplies, uniforms, transport — becomes more than a family can manage. Bayon School meets that cost directly: new students receive school materials and two uniforms a year, secondary students are given a bicycle, and every family gets a modest monthly allowance so their children's education isn't a burden on the household budget.
See Our Causes
A short film from Bayon School
Video courtesy of Bayon School (ecoledubayon.org).
Moments from the classroom
Photos: École du Bayon
Our support at Bayon School
Entraide Asia's contribution at Bayon School is personally funded and kept deliberately simple: it covers tuition, books and daily living costs for secondary students who would otherwise have to choose between attending class and helping their family get by. The same support reaches the individual students Christophe sponsors directly in Myanmar.
Christophe visits Bayon School in person — walking the classrooms, meeting teachers and staff, and checking that support is reaching the students who need it, rather than funding the school from a distance.